Batch type reactors are commonly employed in kinetic studies of catalytic processes which involve gas consumption or production. Hydrogenation, oxidation, hydroformylation, carbonylation and the polymerization of gaseous monomers are some examples of catalytic gas consumption reactions of commercial importance.
Conventional methods for gas/liquid reaction kinetic studies involve sampling the reaction mixture at specific time intervals and analyzing the samples using analytical techniques, such as infrared, ultraviolet-visible, mass or NMR spectroscopy and gas chromatography. A variety of manual and semi-automated gas consumption measuring systems have been reported. The major problems with these prior art systems are the relatively large sampling period and/or difficulty in data collection, which makes the study tedious and often subject to considerable error.
Reliable kinetic studies of gas consuming catalytic reactions carried out in a batch type reactor require a system in which it is possible to maintain a constant pressure with a minimum of pressure fluctuations in the batch reactor. The facility to display, store and analyze the kinetic data conveniently and at sampling time intervals specified by the operator is also of importance in carrying out reliable kinetic studies.
Several chemical reactions of interest involve gases along with liquid and/or solid substrates. By keeping the gas pressure constant and monitoring the amount of gas consumed, the amount of liquid and/or solid reacted can be estimated as a function of time. By carrying out a number of experiments with different gas pressures, temperatures, mixing rates, catalyst concentrations and other reaction parameters, for the system there can then be established a reaction rate law, rate constants can be estimated and the mechanism of the reaction elucidated.